The European Commission has opened two antitrust investigations into Qualcomm's possible abuse of its market dominance of semiconductors.

The first investigation looks at whether Qualcomm, which is the market leader for baseband chipsets, offered cash to customers if they bought exclusively or almost exclusively baseband chipsets from it.

The second investigation will look into whether Qualcomm engaged in 'predatory pricing' by charging prices below costs with a view to forcing its competition out of the market.

European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said: "Many customers use electronic devices such as a mobile phone or a tablet and we want to ensure that they ultimately get value for money."

It would be jolly good if the EU started investigating if consumers were getting their money's worth. Looking at the mark-up on some mobile gadgets we would have thought a bigger inquiry was a long time in coming.

The German Federation of Consumer Organizations has threatened Blizzard with legal action unless the company highlights the requirement for constant internet connection on Diablo III packaging.

Strangely enough, even though some companies tried similar methods in the past, and quite expectedly stirred a whole lot of trouble, Blizzard still decided to run with it. Now, it is given until July 27, 2012, to do as the group asks or face legal action.

In related news, the company has been fined in South Korea over not refunding customers for the Error 37, which rendered the game unplayable due to sheer number of players and resulting server errors. Thankfully, the fine is £4,500, so we're talking pocket money for the company.

Well, it's not the victory many players hoped for, but will probably be enough to shut everyone up. Besides, those without an internet connection can't complain much to begin with.

South Korean electronics giant Samsung has been voted the most preferred consumer electronics brand by customers across the European Union and the States. This is quite a remarkable feat considering the competition includes names such as Apple, Sony, HP, Dell and the likes.

The survey involved 6,000 people from the EU and US, 41 percent of which said they would probably or definitely purchase Samsung’s gear. Second most popular was Sony/Sony Ericsson with 29 percent. Apple has received 19 percent of votes, followed by LG, Panasonic, Nokia, etc.

Apparently, Lenovo ended up being the least preferred brand, despite the company’s considerable efforts on the market. It’s well worth noting that Apple has retained the leading spot in American Customer Satisfaction Index for the eight year running.

]]>NewsFri, 08 Jun 2012 09:50:36 +0200OCZ to take Computex show by stormhttps://www.fudzilla.com/news/memory/27397-ocz-to-take-computex-show-by-storm
https://www.fudzilla.com/news/memory/27397-ocz-to-take-computex-show-by-storm

New SSDs, Thunderbolt SSD coming

Although we honestly did not doubt it, OCZ's SSD lineup at Computex, which kicks off in a few days on June 5th, may end up being quite impressive. According to OCZ, we will see a whole set of new SSDs, including enterprise ones based on Everest 2 controller, new one based on Kilimanjaro controller, as well as a first external SSD that features Thunderbolt interface.

When it comes to enterprise market solutions, OCZ plans to show the new Intrepid SSD, simply an enterprise version of Vertex 4, since it is based on the same Everest 2 controller with SATA 6Gbps interface. According to first details, Intrepid 3 should provide over 100k IOPS and feature highly improved reliability. In addition to the Intrepid 3, OCZ is also expected to showcase a new Z-Drive R5 based on the Kilimanjaro controller co-developed with Marvell. The Z-Drive R5 will, of course, feature a PCI-Express interface and is also a part of enterprise lineup.

When it comes to consumer parts, well sort of, OCZ is expected to show its "Lightfoot" external SSD solution that will feature Thunderbolt interface with up to 10Gb/s data transfer rate. Of course, this one will most likely be aimed at professionals with deep pockets rather than mere mortals, but it will certainly be interesting to at least see it. According to OCZ, it will be available in capacities starting at 128GB and all the way up to 1TB.

In any case, OCZ's Computex lineup certainly sounds interesting and we are looking forward to see how well these announced SSDs actually perform.